Forums

Hi Rebecca,

Welcome to Rock Day (https://common.nsta.org/resource/?id=10.2505/4/sc04_041_04_40) is another article you should cehck out for ideas for the classroom.

Take care,

Flavio.

For a rock/earth unit I did a study on sand and where sand featured in the rock cycle. I had to collect different types of sand from different places (I am an international teacher so my kids collect it when they go on holidays to all sorts of exotic destinations). Get some basic microscopes (hand held with built in light and uv light) and get the kids to catalogue what they find. Simple red sand from the gobi desert is mostly clear with elements of red ochre rocks. Beach sand contains shells, animal skeletons and other cool stuff. Some lake sand I had once contained a couple of fossilised shells embedded in a grain of sand. Sand from a forest has lots of leaf detritus and maybe a bug or two. What then happens to the sand and where does it come from? How old is the sand? these are all questions you can ask to grab attention. Also using the little handheld microscopes is a lot of fun just going around the room looking at things. Then when we go outside with them POW!!! minds blown.

Hello Rebecca! 

I am also a preservice teacher, a mom, and a nana. There is a wealth of information given on this thread by other contributors, and I wanted to add just a very simple suggestion....kids are motivated by food. I have seen some edible cooking experiments that illustrate how rocks are formed. For instance, 'Magic Shell' in the ice cream section poured over an ice cube..it quickly cools and forms an 'igneous rock'. There are other recipes for edible rocks out there too!